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# FAQ

## How can I obtain a deleted track from SoundCloud?<br/>

Unless someone else has downloaded the track you are looking for before it was deleted, which is unlikely, you can't obtain deleted tracks from SoundCloud.

## Is there a SoundCloud archive?

No public SoundCloud archive exists.

## Where can I find music?

See [Reference➜Music Sources](/reference/music-sources).

## What formats does a streaming service provide?

See [Reference➜Streaming Services](/reference/streaming-services).

## Why are lossless formats usually preferred compared to lossy ones?

Whilst a good quality lossy file can sound transparent to the end user, some information is discarded during the encoding process. The goal of archival is to have a perfect copy of the original, and lossless file are used as no data is discarded as a space-saving measure. The lossless archival copy can also be used to generate different kinds of lossy files, for example for use in mobile devices. If only a lossy file is present, it cannot be re-encoded to a potential newer and better lossy format down the line, whereas a lossless file can.

## How can I check if a file is MQA?

Reencoding an MQA file removes the MQA syncword, which makes the file undetectable by MQA identifiers.

Tools that search for the MQA syncword: [MQA Identifier](https://github.com/purpl3F0x/MQA_identifier), [mqaid](https://github.com/redsudo/mqaid)
